Well, it’s that day of the year again when we see a large number of students going back to school after their one month long break. I am sure that there are also a number of students who are not keen on going back to school. But surprisingly, there are also a number who can’t wait to return. During my time, I dreaded going to school. So the holidays were the best time of the school year. No teachers telling you to do this or do that, no school bullies pushing you around, no homework to do, no waking up early to catch the school bus and no time table to follow. In other words, freedom! Yes, we all love freedom. You can do whatever you want. Of course, in Singapore we most likely will see a very different scenario. I am not sure what went wrong and when did it all go wrong, but it seems to me that nowadays Singaporean parents just love to send their children to tuition centres, art classes, drama classes, acting school, computer courses and so on. Worse of all, their school holidays are just spent in these classes! Crazy. Parents should give their children a little break now and then. Overwhelming them just don’t cut it anymore. And it is ultimately counter-productive when your children becomes overwhelmed with information which they cannot handle and start to lose focus. And it also depends on individually how the child handles this kind of stress. If they break down, that’s going to be difficult for someone to walk away from. I have seen a lot of such cases and in a hyper-competitive Singapore, it is just going to get worse.

Probably, In my opinion, the main problem lies with the parents. The truth is Singaporean parents are just full of themselves and they are a selfish lot. Sending their children to so many tuition centres or art classes won’t really help their children, but what it does is gives the parents free time to do what they want. I am very sure that they know that. It is much easier to “pass” their parenting duties to someone else, so why not someone from a tuition centre where they can then claim that it is actually helping them? I know parenting is a very tiring job. It’s still a choice. But if you want to be a parent, then by god, you should do it yourself even if you can’t completely do it. Don’t pass the bucket just because it is convenient.